The 'Momo Challenge' is a hoax -- and the media needs to stop feeding fears about it

National Online Safety, a company that instructs teachers how to talk about online safety to children, created a guide for parents about "the Momo Challenge." But these fears are unfounded.(Photo: National Online Saafety)

You know the super scary “Momo Challenge” that’s spreading virally on YouTube, with instructions for kids in videos to kill themselves? Should you be worried?

It’s not even a new hoax. It pops up every now and then — as recently as last summer — and ever-eager media, hungry for hits, viewers, and listeners, jump on it with both feet, truth be damned, reporting on this NEW DANGER TO YOUR CHILDREN.

Supposedly people either receive messages on WhatsApp with instructions, or see what look like kid-friendly videos on YouTube spliced with images and coded instructions for them to follow, which may include telling them to hurt other people or even commit suicide. This involves images of a genuinely scary Japanese statue that has absolutely nothing to do with it.

It’s perfect for putting parents in a panic. But there’s no evidence that this is actually happening as part of any coordinated game or challenge (though it is possible there are random videos created by creeps who want to latch onto the trend). So far, there is no substantiated evidence of any harm coming from any of it.

YouTube, obviously concerned, issued a statement about the supposed trend:

“Many of you have shared your concerns with us over the past few days about the Momo Challenge — we’ve been paying close attention to these reports. After much review, we’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube.

"Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are clearly against our policies, the Momo challenge included. Despite press reports of this challenge surfacing, we haven’t had any recent links flagged or shared with us from YouTube that violate our Community Guidelines.”

You see all kinds of wacky, fake things online — whose Facebook timeline hasn’t been littered with posts about how the company’s algorithm changed, so unless you do this or that thing, you’ll only see posts from 26 of your friends? Or that you need to claim copyright of every photo you’ve posted? It’s annoying but harmless.

It all plays into people’s natural suspicions about social media and life online generally. Genuine problems like massive data leaks don’t exactly do anything to ease those fears.

Media, however, should not play into those fears. To do so is just wrong, no matter how much it improves your ratings. So, please, cut it out.